The present invention relates to compositions employed as flavorant additives to foods and particularly to preparation of a blue cheese flavorant composition.
As is known to those skilled in the art of cheesemaking, cheeses known as "blue" cheeses are appreciated not only as a food per se, but also have distinctive flavor characteristics which desirably are employed in a variety of foodstuffs. It is known, for example, to employ blue cheese itself or flavorants having blue cheese flavoring characteristics in oil and water or oil and vinegar emulsions for such as dressing green salads. The characteristic complexity and "sharpness" of the blue cheese flavor also may be employed to add "zest" and distinctive character to other bland foods such as eggs, for example in omelets, and pastas.
As is also known, blue cheese, a semi-soft cheese, is prepared conventionally by fermenting milk and/or milk products for several months with the mold Penicillium roquefortii. As the art attests, however, such as illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,488, the length of the aging period required to obtain the desirable distinct flavor characteristics of blue cheese is costly in the context of seeking to provide acceptable flavorant additives for foods.
Moreover, when conventionally fermented cheeses, including blue cheese, are employed per se as flavorants, not only do these cheeses add significant undesirable bulk to the food product, but the products also have a relatively short-shelf-life because of the presence of fermentation agents. Thus, it is required that the processing and/or storage conditions of such products be such that the fermentation agents remain inactive. Moreover, such products present the possibility of a consumer experiencing an allergenic reaction because of the presence of fermentation agents.
In addition, as will be appreciated, consumers expect the flavor of products to be consistent from one gustatory experience to the next. However, generally, if a flavorant system is manufactured on an industrial scale with conventional fermentation, final product flavor profiles are difficult to control on a statistically significant quality control basis, and thus, it may be difficult to obtain a consistent final product flavor, for example in a batch to batch context. Moreover, even if consistency is attained by the manufacturer of such a flavorant, consistency of character may be lost if a transporter, or a manufacturer of a product in which the flavorant is employed, or a retailer does not diligently control, for example, storage conditions.
To address these considerations and problems, various methods have been proposed for preparing cheese character flavorants, including blue cheese flavorants, which have objectives of short preparation time, consistent quality and stability for long periods.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,153 discloses that a cheese character flavorant may be produced in a matter of days by incubating mold cells of Penicillium roquefortii, and white mutants thereof, or Penicillium camemberti, in milk or in mixtures of milk and cream to hydrolyze fats to convert them into aromatic ketones. It also is disclosed that lipases or other fat-splitting enzymes hasten the reaction and conversion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,488, which makes reference to the above-noted '153 patent, addresses a problem resultant from employing mycelium ferments and directs that the process be carried out with a spore inoculum of the bacteria under submerged aerobic conditions. British Patent Specification 1,361,817 likewise discloses employment of spores and teaches that a particularly preferred blue cheese flavorant is prepared when coconut oil is employed as a source of fat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,964 discloses a process for preparation of a blue cheese flavorant by liberating C.sub.4 to C.sub.14 free fatty acids from fats and oils by chemical or enzymatic hydrolysis and then fermenting the free fatty acids with spores of Penicillium roquefortii under submerged aerobic conditions with agitation, after which the fermentation and hydrolysis agents are deactivated.